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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Made in Taiwan

Awhile back I wrote a post about going to the dentist. You can read it here. It will help you understand a bit about what I went through this morning.
The dentist finally got his way. Just before Christmas I busted a tooth. Diagnosis: A new crown must be fashioned and applied to the tooth. In the spirit of good cheer and holiday kindness, I (If I drank egg nog I'd be blaming it right now) agreed that my 30+ year old stainless steel crowns could be replaced at the same time. What was I thinking?
Today I had a three hour long appointment with my dentist, who did a great job of grinding out the chipped tooth, sawing away at the old crowns, and basically numbing my mouth until it felt the size of a hippo's. When he had done all the prep, he took new impressions (vile purple paste that sticks everywhere). Then the dental assistant, Jody, (What a sweetheart...eversomuch more kind and way less pinchier looking than the girl I had in the above post) made temporary crowns for me. I had assumed they would put stainless steel temporary crowns on while I waited for my new porcelain crowns to be fashioned and sent to me. Um...this is not exactly the procedure anymore. Jody manufactured and glued into my head three plastic crowns. They feel so weird, lightweight, kind of rough, and nothing like the steel ones I had previously. They make me feel like I was made in Taiwan.
To top it all off, I stopped by my MIL's right after, cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk, lips not responding to any of the commands I was sending them to stop slouching off my face. I pulled into the drive and took the snowshovel off the porch to remove a couple inches of partly cloudy off the cement. (MIL has cancer and uses a walker. Must NOT walk on snow.) I promptly wiped out face first on the concrete. Such a klutz! Ribs hurting, knee stinging, and wrist throbbing, I put the shovel away. I went inside and didn't tell the MIL, because she doesn't need to know. She'd just feel bad.
The husband was appropriately sympathetic (for reasons not the least of which was his own wipeout on the snow today and that in spite of the dentistry torture I'd gone through I had still brought him lunch at the shop). We ordered pizza for supper. He's so good to me.
Right now I'm taking Advil, rejoicing in crit partners and friends who prayed for me, and trying not to think about having to return to the dentist in two weeks to get my new permanent crowns.

Owie, LOL Owie,LOL sorry, but it's classic slapstick. As to temp crowns. I don't remember having temp ones. Temp glue that held on for over 20 yrs until I had to have a root canal. The last crown was made while I waited in the chair. Dr. Joe took a wand attached to a computer and mapped the outline for the new crown. The computer made a 3D image. He put a cube of porcelain in another machine and the computer used the 3D image to grind and lathe the crown. Pretty cool to watch. I did have to go back a couple of times to have it ground down because the darn thing occluded and I couldn't chew on that side.Hopefully, your new crowns will fit properly the first time.

Talk about insult to injury! I hadn't heard about the falling on the snow incident!

I always have to avert my gaze whenever they show the dentists starting their work on shows like Extreme Makeover.

I just had to have a filling replaced back before Christmas---with no anesthesia! But they didn't have to do any drilling other than to file away what was left of the filling they'd put in two years ago, when I had a couple of new cavities and they replaced most of my old black fillings with porcelain.

I go to the dentist every six months like a good girl--just like I did growing up--since my dental plan covers the cleanings and x-rays.

But I am going to have to go back to the orthodontist twenty years after getting my braces off. My teeth have shifted and I'm getting gaps where there shouldn't be gaps while other teeth are so close together I can't get floss between them!